AL Batting Average Leaders 2008

Contact hitters have streaks and power comes and goes, but one of truest measures of a baseball player’s season is the bottom line of batting average.

It’s a statistic that rewards excellence over the grind of a 162-game season. Players surge and slump, but over the course of a six-month test, your .250 hitter is going to end up hitting .250…or something very close to it.

Hitting a baseball long has been regarded as the toughest thing to do in all of sports. Here are the players who did the most consistent job of taking a round bat to a round ball and hitting it square in 2008:

 1. Joe Mauer, Minnesota: .328
 2. Dustin Pedroia, Boston: .326
 3. Milton Bradley, Texas: .321
 4. Ian Kinsler, Texas: .319
 5. Magglio Ordonez, Detroit: .317
 6. Kevin Youkilis, Boston: .312
 7. Ichiro Suzuki, Seattle: .310
T8. David DeJesus, Kansas City: .307
T8. Placido Polanco, Detroit: 307
10. Nick Markakis, Baltimore: .306

Source: MLB.com